2009

Spotlight: Alan “The Blind Owl” Wilson

Deaths always come in threes, don’t they? This was certainly the case with three of the most prominent blues-rock artists of the ’60s. Janis Joplin, 27, had just been found in her hotel room at the Landmark Motor Hotel; her Southern Comfort-soaked voice silenced. Jimi Hendrix – also 27 – whose timeless electro-blues licks were already legendary, had suspiciously choked to death two weeks prior. Sadly, beating both to the great beyond was another 27-year-old blues-rock musician, Alan “The Blind Owl” Wilson of the band Canned Heat who died exactly two weeks before Jimi on September 3.

You may ask, who is the this person I deign categorize with these two legends? “The Blind Owl” was a different breed altogether. He wasn’t the showman that the other two were, nor did he strive to be, but his dedication, love and commitment to the blues was every bit as strong. Time hasn’t been as kind to him as it has been to others of the era who passed before their time. In this day and age he’s largely forgotten.

READ ON to find out more about “The Blind Owl”…

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10KLF’s Big Announcement Leaks

For the past few weeks 10KLF.com has been teasing the “biggest announcement ever” for this year’s 10KLF festival which goes down on July 22-25 in Detroit Lakes, MI. Music fans

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Animal Collective Month Long Spring Tour

 Animal Collective will be embarking on a month long tour this spring in support of Merriweather Post Pavilion.  The album, available now on Domino Records, is Animal Collective’s ninth studio

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Future Clouds and Radar: Peoria

Although Future Clouds and Radar evoke two words that are plain annoying – “beatlesque and power pop" –    the Austin outfit’s 2007 self –titled two disc debut, won over many new fans and even went so far as to be named fourth best album of the year by Harp Magazine.   Their follow-up, Peoria, is a tight eight song 35 minute affair, and while not as grandiose as its predecessor, this one still finds the band enrolled at Beatles U.

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Animal Collective Hit The Road, Hard

On one of the official release dates of their new album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective have announced a massive world tour. The band kicks things off with a sold-out show tonight in NYC and will perform at four additional shows in the U.S. before heading overseas in March.

AC

In March, the zealous overachievers are booked for 22 shows over 25 days in 11 countries. There’s no rest for the weary as May through June has the band playing 22 U.S. shows and two in Canada.

Most of us at Hidden Track Headquarters think this album qualifies as an early contender for best album of 2009 and Merriweather Post Pavilion will surely be making numerous appearances in many top 5 / top 10 album lists from a variety of publications at the end of the year.

READ ON after the jump for the band’s full itinerary. Mark your local show in your calendar as you will not be disappointed by AC live…

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Grousing The Aisles: New Wilco Matrix

Wilco: 12/06/2008 MATRIX Rochester, NY [MP3, FLAC] For their last set of tour dates in 2008, Wilco headed out on the road to support Neil Young at huge arenas in

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CW: Don’t You (Forget About Me) Edition

Looking back on last week’s Cover Wars, Tea Leaf Green has emerged victorious with over 50% of the vote. In 2nd place was The Allman Brothers Band and I am also very happy to report that every entry received at least one vote – I love it when that happens. In case you missed it, last week we looked at ten covers of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

Fist Pump

This week I have chosen an 80’s super-hit by Simple Minds. This song was written specifically for the 1985 brat-pack film The Breakfast Club. Simple Minds is still touring and plan to release an album in 2009, a title has not yet been revealed.

As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM before starting the playlist below to stream full-length clips.

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READ ON after the jump for a look at this week’s contestants…

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